Black Organizing Squad (BOS) Lead Organizer

Black Organizing Squad (BOS) Lead Organizer

Location: Remote 

Reports to: M4BL BOS Table Manager 

Salary: $88,000 - $95,000 with full health benefits for employee and dependents, employer-funded retirement plan, remote work stipend, and 28 days of vacation

Movement for Black Lives

The Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) formed in December of 2014 and was created as a space for Black organizations across the country to debate and discuss the current political conditions, develop shared assessments of what political interventions were necessary to achieve key policy, cultural and political wins, convene organizational leadership to debate and co-create a shared movement wide strategy. M4BL is an ecosystem of more than 150 Black led organizations representing thousands of Black people from across the country that have come together with renewed energy, strategy, and purpose to articulate a common vision and agenda. Our ecosystem is united by core values and politics that seek to build an anti-capitalist, abolitionist, and Black queer feminist future. The Movement for Black Lives’ budget has grown significantly to meet the needs of the ecosystem and the urgency of this political and cultural moment. M4BL’s donor base now consists of multi-year commitments from diverse funding streams across major individual donors, corporations, private, public and family foundations, trusts, and other assets. In this phase of our growth, M4BL is looking for new staff members to join an expanding finance and operations team.

Position Summary

The work of the BOS Table aka Black Organizing Squad or Organizing Table is to increase the power and capacity of Black-led formations and organizations that are building base, raising consciousness, developing the leadership of, and building the power of Black people to confront and shift the power and accountability of individuals, institutions, and systems towards justice, equity, alternatives and liberation for Black communities. The Organizing Table’s collective work will deepen the impact, broaden the scale, and increase the potency and vitality of Black grassroots organizing resulting in more leaders, more sustained wins, deeper alignment, and more power on the local and national level toward the M4BL Black Power Rising Strategy. 

The BOS Lead Organizer will work inside the BOS Table alongside ecosystem table leadership to provide leadership and support to advance table goals. Along with other staff, they will invest time in building relationships and providing support to table members. Specifically, this role will focus on projects of the Leadership Development working group and running an annual Freedom Fellowship program. They will work to ensure the highest level of organization amongst the working group and Fellowship. They will be supervised by the BOS Table manager. 

May require travel and work on occasional weekends and evenings as determined. 

Essential Areas of Work

• Lead organizing and coordination for the Freedom Fellowship Program and Leadership Development working groups 
• Co-Develop Leadership Development programming for Freedom Fellowship Program
• Work to increase the number of organizations on the organizing table and activate deeper participation from those currently on table
• Implement strategies that center relationship building to move and maintain all members to be actively engaged
• Implementation of shared work that is developed by BOS Table
• Organize, manage, and archive all necessary BOS materials, notes, data, and plans
• Lead logistics for all convenings and trainings
• Actively be paying attention to politically important moments and supporting local partners in making interventions as needed 
• Schedule calls, take meeting notes as needed 
• Manage the budget of the Leadership Development and Freedom Fellowship working groups, including expenses, reimbursements, and stipends
• Administrative oversight for the Leadership Development and Freedom Fellowship working groups including file management and documentation; close coordination and communication with M4BL administrative and program leaders
• Join M4BL field team and help connect BOS’s work to the rest of M4BL Ecosystem

Note: The Movement for Black Lives is committed to responding flexibly to changing circumstances and priorities which means that the expectations of every position are dynamic. This description reflects the assignment of essential functions but does not proscribe or restrict the tasks that may be assigned.

Key Qualifications

• Established strong commitment to and knowledge of the values and principles of black liberation and black feminism 
• Have at least 5 years experience as an organizer and/or program coordinator
• Previous experience advocating, organizing, and base-building with Black communities 
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, both written and verbal 
• Ability to design agendas, facilitate meetings with stakeholders, follow-up, and complete tasks.
• Willingness to work in a fast-paced environment where the team has fun, works hard and where people have a commitment to grow, build, and learn 
• Highly organized and detail-oriented, able to prioritize and manage multiple tasks and employs a strong work ethic 
• Self-motivated, resourceful, creative, and able to work well both independently and collaboratively is a must 
• Willingness to work some evenings and weekends
• Familiarity with Google suite, Zoom, and other planning tools

Desired Core Competencies

• Passion for M4BL’s mission in support of Black liberation and joyful Black life; explicit anti-capitalist, abolitionist and Black queer feminist politics
• Exceptional interpersonal, communication, and relationship building skills across diverse populations and partnerships
• A work ethic with a ‘no problem too big, no question too small’ attitude
• The ability to thrive in a collaborative, dynamic, fast paced work environment where priorities are often evolving to adapt to the movement’s needs and emergent opportunities; 
• A team leader and a team player who can drive impact at the operational and tactical levels; and
• Unimpeachable ethical standards, confidentiality, and personal integrity, always demonstrating self-awareness and dependability. 
• A sense of humor would be welcomed :)

 
Equal Opportunity Workplace

The Movement for Black Lives in partnership with its fiscal sponsor the Common Counsel Foundation is proud to be an equal employment workplace. We welcome and encourage job applicants who are motivated to work with us in addressing social injustice and those who have personal experience with injustice. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on any of the follow factors; race, color, religion (including religious dress and grooming practices), age, sex/gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding and/ or related medical conditions), gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, medical condition (genetic characteristics, cancer or a record or history of cancer), military or veteran status, national origin, ancestry, disability (mental and physical including HIV/AIDS, cancer, and genetic characteristics), and genetic information.